When it doubt, run!

Asking if readers would please rank the dark tower series including wind through the keyhole. Even if u haven't completed rank what u have read. I'm only on the wastelands but very interested what u think the best were.

Need More Time

That's a tough one. I guess I would say Drawing, Wolves and Gunslinger would be my favorites. Song maybe the least? Boy, I don't think I can rank 'em. I will say that Wind could easily be top three just because it was so nice hearing from the gang again.

I'll also say that I wish I was in your shoes, in that I wish I hadn't completed the journey yet...

Well-Known Member

That's a tough one. I guess I would say Drawing, Wolves and Gunslinger would be my favorites. Song maybe the least? Boy, I don't think I can rank 'em. I will say that Wind could easily be top three just because it was so nice hearing from the gang again.

I'll also say that I wish I was in your shoes, in that I wish I hadn't completed the journey yet...

Just moseyin' through...

1. Wizard and Glass (4)
2. Drawing of the Three (2)
3. The Waste Land (3)
4. The Gunslinger (1)--this is a HUGE jump for me. Up until last year, on my 4th or 5th re-read, it would have been dead last. I finally 'got it'
5. The Dark Tower (7)
6. The Wind Through the Keyhole (4.5)--This could move up. I've only read it once.
7. Wolves of the Calla (5)
8. Song of Susannah (6)

Cantre Member

#1 has always been my favorite. #2 - #3 may switch places depending on when you ask me this question. The same with #4- #6. I love them all but there was a section of Song Of Susannah that I struggled getting through. That was probably the only slow part of the entire 3500 (plus or minus) page novel.

1. Wizard and Glass
2. The Waste Lands
3. The Drawing Of Three
4. The Dark Tower
5. Wolves Of The Calla
6. The Gunslinger
7. The Wind Through The Keyhole
8. Song Of Susannah

Well-Known Member

I share the sentiment of another poster, i.e. that since it is one long story, it is difficult for me to break it down for ranking. However, in the spirit of the exercise I will attempt to do so. Normally, when I start one I have to reread all of them. My ranking below is based entirely on impulse reads. In short, of the set which are the ones I'm most likely to just grab for a quick reread on a whim. I assume this is the closest I can come to playing favorites.

1. It is a tie between The Gunslinger and Drawing of the Three.

*The reason I can't really weight one of these above the other is because they are so different in tone. It would be like trying to compare the movies Alien and Aliens or The Terminator and its sequel. The first in both cases is a horror movie while the second an action adventure. When I feel the need for a fast and dirty Dark Tower fix, it is usually one of these two I start to read. In a way, they are both the "beginning" of the story. The Gunslinger comes across to me as literary fiction that also has one hell of a good story installed. Who says you can't have both? Drawing of the Three changes tone and perhaps takes the language down a notch. I think this is fitting because it encompasses more characters. We have moved beyond the limited, alien mindset that the Gunslinger has adopted due to his strange life. When the story revolved entirely around Roland, the language and feel needed to feel as though it where the "High Speech." Once it came to involve his growing Ka-tet, the language had to step down because it was about a group sharing the story and eventually their Khef.

2. Wizard and Glass and The Wind Through the Keyhole

*I probably lump these two together because they both involve young Roland and company. They are easy to pick up and read without going through the entire set because they are stories within stories, and seem to stand alone in that sense.

3. The Wastelands
4. Song of Suzanna
5. The Dark Tower
6. Wolves of the Calla

*The final listing still feels wrong and kind of arbitrary to me. To me it seems totally impossible to separate Song of Suzanna and The Dark Tower. While I love Wolves of the Calla, I've never once picked it up just to read out of order. It has always been part of a reading binge.

We all have it coming, kid

I suppose I always put The Drawing of the Three first because it did what it was supposed to do, which is to get me to want to read more (as The Gunslinger hadn't, not really).

I didn't immediately take to Wizard and Glass. What I wanted back then -- for reasons that those of us who had to wait will understand -- was forward motion. I would now make the case that the entire story hinges on this volume and that the only reason it isn't first for me is because first loves are always best loves.

I liked The Wastelands primarily because I liked Blaine . . . even if he was a pain.

The Wind Through the Keyhole fits anywhere, but it's greatest appeal is that it can exist all by itself outside the mythos and just be a good story. People who get caught up in "epic" sometimes lose story along the way. That is bad.

I put The Gunslinger itself here at what I consider to be the end simply because it took too long to grow on me and isn't cute anymore. It's a necessary look at what Roland really is, but it's a tough slog for me.

The other two are equally enigmatic to me.

I'll put Song ahead of Wolves only because Roland finally does something to make us hope he's finally figured out that he's wrong about the whole thing.

Member

My favorite part of the path is 3 through 5. The need to read the next chapter was never as great as between 3 and 4. 3 got the all the players together and on mission. the end of Rolands journey that pucked up passangers and the begining of the Ka Tets journey.

Loved 4 for so many different reasons that someone who read the books as they were published may have detested. Its a perfect intermission and shift of the world that the story takes place and gives you needed perspective and knowledge for the home stretch.

5 gives you the Ka Tets meaning and purpose to the rest of the worlds and is the first push to the end which wasnt in sight before.

if i couldnt read all again I could read 3-5 and be content to imagine other beginings and ends.

The idiot is IN

My favorite part of the path is 3 through 5. The need to read the next chapter was never as great as between 3 and 4. 3 got the all the players together and on mission. the end of Rolands journey that pucked up passangers and the begining of the Ka Tets journey.

Loved 4 for so many different reasons that someone who read the books as they were published may have detested. Its a perfect intermission and shift of the world that the story takes place and gives you needed perspective and knowledge for the home stretch.

5 gives you the Ka Tets meaning and purpose to the rest of the worlds and is the first push to the end which wasnt in sight before.

if i couldnt read all again I could read 3-5 and be content to imagine other beginings and ends.